November 2009 – Page 2 – Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record

More Doubt In The Stolen Climate Change Data

I always felt the climate change chorus were honorable people who just drew different conclusions than mine. Maybe not.

A few days ago the Climate Research Unit in England, a major source of global warming info, had its computer system hacked! I wrote then about the unearthing of some inconvenient truths.

It looks like some well publicized global warming evidence is the product of the books being cooked! It’s possible the loudest voices in this fight have been playing fast-and-loose with the truth when it doesn’t serve their purpose.

There’s been pushback from the CRU, but it seems thin. Scientists are parsing what they wrote, trying to sound less nefarious. I’m not buying.

I always felt the climate change chorus were honorable people who just drew different conclusions than mine. Maybe not.

Today WattsUpWithThat.com has published some annotated computer code-the equations which produced the data which led to the theories (and solutions) espoused.

Like the emails published late last week this annotated code is embedded with strange comments you’d never expect to see. They make it seem like data that doesn’t fit the orthodoxy is being purged from the output and replaced with artificially ‘massaged’ data!

Uses “corrected” MXD – but shouldn’t usually plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures.

“[A]rtificially adjusted to look closer to the real temperatures.” Seriously, that’s not how science is supposed to be played.

In the real world complex data seldom fits theoretical expectations precisely. Unfortunately, human induced global warming is being sold hard as an irrefutable conclusion. There’s no room for natural noise in the data which might provide an out for doubters.

This story was on the front page of the NY Times over the weekend but it’s only smoldering now. Expect it to flare up in the next few days. There are too many deeply entrenched partisans for this to blow over.

It’s worth following.

Dinner In Southington With The Teachers

I squeezed a lot of women while we took photos. Few people get the chance to be a little flirtatious for a living!

I spent an evening with teachers tonight at the Connecticut Association of Schools annual Elementary School Program Recognition Dinner. They’ve got to shorten that name. This was my fifteenth year.

When I started my daughter was in elementary school. Now she’s a college grad ready to set out on her own.

Along with my emceeing I also do a full evening’s worth of weathercasts. That’s the nerve wracking part, because they are happening simultaneously. The people in Southington seems forgiving. I hope what came through on-the-air didn’t need to be forgiven.

I do a lot of schmoozing at events like this. Tonight I went to every table and said hello. It’s what I do. It’s what I think I should do.

I hugged and squeezed a lot of women while we took photos. Few people get the chance to be a little flirtatious for a living! A few women told me their husbands think they have a thing for me. Flattering… and innocent.

The Aqua-Turf in Southington is an interesting venue. It’s family owned, but decidedly not mom-and-pop. The place is beautifully functional and hasn’t aged or tarnished during my time in Connecticut.

The A-T also serves the world’s largest prime rib. Now, with a reasonably good camera in my pocket with the iPhone, I’ve got a chance to share a photo on a typical serving. Crazy.

About The Big Bing Rumor

How is this not restraint of trade?

Briefly–I’ve seen lots of posts suggesting Microsoft’s Bing might pay News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) to let them index News Corp sites with the proviso they don’t allow Google to do the same.

How is this not restraint of trade?

My Nephew Matt Heads To New York City

I find NYC very appealing. As I’ve grown older my desire to live there has grown greater. Of course I would need to re-wife and re-job.

We are a small family. I have but one nephew–Matt. He flew into New York for a quick weekend visit and today I drove in to join him for breakfast.

I find NYC very appealing. As I’ve grown older my desire to live there has grown greater. Of course I would need to re-wife and re-job.

Guess no NYC.

I picked up Matt on 48th Street on the West Side, then headed crosstown finding a parking space adjacent to the building where Judge Judy lives.

Which is more surprising, that I know where Judge Judy lives or I got a free, legal, on-street parking space in Manhattan?

I suppose there are good ways to find a place to eat, but we just tried pot luck and ended up in a diner on First Avenue. Not bad. Very crowded. I had the bagels and lox special. Matt had waffles.

Along with taking Matt to breakfast I volunteered to take him to the airport. First, he asked if I’d take him to Ground Zero?

Simply put, that’s a request which cannot be turned down regardless of time constraints or circumstances.

We cut across on 34th Street past the Empire State Building, Macy’s and Madison Square Garden. As we approached the West Side I turned south, finally ending up at Vesey and West Broadway, a dead end at the edge of the pit.

There’s really not a lot to see. The work reconstructing the area has been very slow and plagued with disagreements and power plays.

There is a lot to feel. You just can’t go to that spot without remembering what happened.

By the time Matt got back to the car I’d made a U-turn putting me in the perfect position to almost go the wrong way on Broadway. I discovered my error just before driving into the police car pointed directly at me!

We took the Brooklyn Bridge to the BQE, passed over Newtown Creek, and then north through Queens to LaGuardia.

Hopefully Matt’s back in Milwaukee by now. It was great seeing him and worth every mile.

My Room

Which am I more–pack rat or slob? Maybe it’s equal pieces of each.

I spent a good part of this afternoon cleaning my room. Which am I more–pack rat or slob? Maybe it’s equal pieces of each.

I can’t stand to throw things out. Is this inherited from my folks? Maybe. Growing up our little apartment was bursting at the seams.

I ditched a midi keyboard which plugged into a port my computer no longer has. I threw out a Radio Shack scanner which hasn’t been used in years.

When in doubt I just closed my eyes and tossed.

Also gone are scraps of papers. Why did I have them? No clue? Pads–gone. Old CDs for programs now five versions behind–gone.

Three large trashbags are gone and I’m just getting started.

Have Hackers Unearthed Climate Change’s Real Inconvenient Truth?

It looks like some well publicized global warming evidence is the product of the books being cooked!

When people hear my opinions on human induced global warming they’re usually surprised… maybe shocked is a better word. I am a meteorologist with some training in climatology. I watched Al Gore present his global warming lecture as an invited guest in the White House. I’m a liberal. And yet I don’t believe we humans are changing our climate in a noticeable or troubling way.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for freeing ourselves from the grip of foreign oil, even if that’s painful in the short term. I’d like the air cleaner with less crap emitted by cars, trucks and industry. My goals are mostly the same as the goals of the global warming doomsayers.

Unfortunately, if you dissent on the issue of global warming you’re branded an idiot or heretic or maybe I’m in the pocket of big oil. The global warming theory proponents often have a religious-like fervor in their support. “How can you dismiss all the evidence,” they ask?

This is my blog. This isn’t the news. My level of fact checking is very low, but published reports say web servers at the England’s East Anglia Climate Research Unit have been hacked and some of the personal emails and data removed are damning!

Even though I disagree with these people I am seriously shocked to hear this might be true. I expected the debate was educated and legitimate.

Here are two email snippets.

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.” – Phil Jones

“The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t. The CERES data published in the August BAMS 09 supplement on 2008 shows there should be even more warming: but the data are surely wrong. Our observing system is inadequate.” – Kevin Trenberth

The problem is recent history has shown a halt to global warming over the last decade. Whatever the reason it doesn’t make sense to see this if the most well known theories are correct!

This is a story that’s just beginning to be written.

I don’t condone breaking into a computer, as these hackers allegedly did. I certainly don’t condone passing off lies as fact.

Here’s What Oprah Should Have Announced

Only Oprah could make this choice and produced an immediate impact. Only Oprah could immediately make the Internet a viable platform for modern day broadcasting.

Later today Oprah Winfrey plans to make public the announcement she made to her staff Thursday: “Oprah” will end its broadcast TV run in 2011 and she will concentrate her efforts on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), a new cable network. Oprah is making a mistake! She should have gone direct-to-net.

First, a few givens. The local stations that currently run her show will be the biggest losers. Oprah has delivered killer lead-ins to local news for years. Oprah’s influence has been so strong it’s rumored many stations run the show as a loss leader knowing they’ll make it up during the news.

Second, Oprah will move to a new cable channel with no track record and currently no clearances. She will be on a channel t-b-a, but certainly not with the dial position and complementary programming (and promotion) she currently has.

As much as is possible when you’re the world’s best known TV host, Oprah will start from zero.

Establishing a new cable channel, even for someone of Oprah’s stature and means will not be easy. If anyone can make this a success she can, but there’s much more room for success if Oprah had blazed the path to direct Internet distribution.

To more and more people the Internet is a perfectly acceptable substitute for TV. With the ubiquity of high speed Internet picture quality is no longer a real concern. Hulu and Netflix have shown that. Even Youtube is getting ready to deliver HD quality videos.

Bandwidth costs, the deciding factor on video quality, continue to drop.

Going on the Internet gives Oprah a boatload of options.

The show could be served both live and on-demand to multiple platforms at multiple bandwidths.
Live events could be covered live without any worry about interfering with other scheduled programming. Imagine Oprah at the Oscars or at any compatible event.
Recorded shows could be served full and as smaller mini-episodes.
No need to share revenue with a cable channel or cable operators (by way of local spot breaks).
The total control that the Internet affords would allow more creative viewer interaction and sponsor opportunities. Spots don’t have to be the end all be all anymore.
The audience could be expanded to reach more working women via office computers and smartphone apps

My friend Brian Lapis points out Howard Stern’s diminution of reach and power since leaving terrestrial radio for Sirius. Stern went to a technology with a small installed base and then hid behind a paywall. Oprah doesn’t need to do that. I believe she can reach more people over the long run via the Internet than she could on TV simply by making herself available at more times and on more platforms.

Only Oprah could make this choice and produced an immediate impact. Only Oprah could immediately make the Internet a viable platform for modern day broadcasting.

Opportunity lost.

On The Occasion Of Rocky And Bullwinkle’s 50th Anniversary

As animation goes Rocky and Bullwinkle was déclassé. This was no Disney romp with full foreground and background movement.

Fifty years ago today Rocket J. Squirrel took flight for the first time from Frostbite Falls, MN (before Minnesota was even abbreviated MN) launched by his buddy Bullwinkle Moose. As a kid I watched this show religiously. It was always funny, always sharp.

As animation goes Rocky and Bullwinkle was déclassé. This was no Disney romp with full foreground and background movement. The characters was sketched. The backgrounds were static. There are 30 frames per second on TV. There’s no way there were 30 drawings per second on this cartoon.

Rocky and Bullwinkle lived and died on the strength of writing and acting. The pen and ink skill was far behind in importance.

Here is what’s probably my all time favorite YouTube clip: A medley of Boris Badenov, featuring June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Ward and William Conrad.

Who’s The Sexiest Man Alive… Again

Every year when People Magazine announces the Sexiest Man Alive a producer decides, “Wouldn’t it be a fun idea to replace the real photo with Geoff?” Here is the 2009 edition.

Thanks to Nick upstairs who wrangled this out of Photoshop. Thanks to Johnny Depp who provided the facial hair.

What’s This On The New Haven Map?

I’ve lived in the New Haven area 25 years but until looking at Google Maps never realized there was an obviously man made, perfectly straight, narrow body of water inside West River Memorial Park

View Larger Map

This is a real puzzler. I’ve lived in the New Haven area 25 years but until looking at Google Maps never realized there was an obviously man made, perfectly straight, narrow body of water inside West River Memorial Park. It resembles an airport runway… if they were made of water!

If you know what this is and why it’s there will you please let me know? I’m stumped and don’t even have a clue who to ask.

Fall Photos From The Neighborhood

I have taken hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures of this tiny body of water. There’s no doubt I’m it’s most dedicated chronicler.

As fall days go yesterday was nearly perfect. The Sun was out, filtered through some high clouds with lots of texture. The temperature was in the 50s, but with little wind. It felt mild. I threw the 70-300mm lens on Clicky, picked up my tripod and headed out for a few quick shots.

As you can see (below) the trees are reasonably bare. Any leaves hanging on are hanging on for no apparent reason. The hardwood trees in my neighborhood are shut down for the winter.

This is the time of year when Jepps Brook begins to flow more strongly. This past weekend’s rains are still slowly percolating into the brook.

I have taken hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures of this tiny body of water. There’s no doubt I’m it’s most dedicated chronicler. No two days and no two shots are ever exactly the same.

All these shots were taken within a few hundred yards of my home. I’m very lucky indeed. There are few places as beautiful.

Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention: Paperclip Edition

Scramble mode! Who has a straight or safety pin at the station? As it turns out, no one!

I had a button pop off my suit tonight. The suit is old. It was scheduled to be ‘retired’ after my recent shopping trips. Thin people don’t have buttons pop off their suits–I understand.

Scramble mode! Who has a straight or safety pin at the station? As it turns out, no one!

I ran to the shop where Dave, one of our maintenance techs, was working on a piece of equipment. With a pair of diagonal cutters and a paperclip we fashioned as temporary fastener. It’s good to work with people who are handy.

Hopefully the clip will last through the night. Gratefully I don’t have to go through any metal detectors this evening.

Will You Pay For Info? Confusion Reigns

An eyeball viewing content on the net isn’t worth as much as that same eyeball watching a TV commercial.

At the TV station my bosses have a quandary. They know many of you are changing your habits and getting your info on the Internet. Should we follow you?

Don’t answer yet because the problem is complex and confusing.

An eyeball viewing content on the net isn’t worth as much as that same eyeball watching a TV commercial. We move you to the net at our own peril. Of course if we could charge viewers to subscribe to our product, as cable TV and satellite radio already do, we could supplement income from commercials and continue to pay the mortgage.

So far getting consumers to pay for web content isn’t very successful. At one time the NY Times had a partial paywall behind which its columnists and some other premium content lived. No more. The Wall Street Journal is currently somewhat successful in charging for much of its content. There aren’t many other examples.

Entire lines of business are dependent on getting the correct answer to this question which is why the Technology page on the NY Times website is so frustrating. Co-existing on one page are the following headlines:

80% of US Consumers Won’t Pay For Content
About Half in US Would Pay For Online News, Study Finds.

Is there an editor in the house? Aren’t these mutually exclusive?

If the answer was easy we’d all be doing the right thing today instead of being petrified what we’ll do is wrong.

Blogger’s note: For clarity I used Photoshop to make the capture of the Times Technology page fit on your screen. Nothing germane to my point was removed.

Ken Ober From MTV’s Remote Control Has Died

MTV, the Peter Pan of TV networks, never grew older. People like Ken Ober did and were tossed aside.

Back when they played music on MTV… back when I had the hots for Martha Quinn… there was an MTV game show: Remote Control. Ken Ober, Remote Control’s host, died today. He was 52–too old for MTV but way too young to die.

Remote Control was more skit comedy show than game show. Along with Ober there was Colin Quinn and, at various times, Adam Sandler, Denis Leary and Kari Wührer (who I also had the hots for).

MTV, the Peter Pan of TV networks, never grew older. People like Ken Ober did and were tossed aside. Too old to rock and roll–or at least too old to rock and roll with today’s viewers. That’s a shame.

I ran into him at an ice show in Hartford many years ago. I just wanted to say hello and tell him how much I enjoyed the show. As I began to introduce myself he said he was from Hartford and already knew who I was. I liked that more than a little.

Remote Control and it’s cast were witty. Witty was an acceptable MTV component then. Not any more.

Is This Really What America’s Clamoring For?

While in the mall I spied this sign for a new store on its way to fill empty stomachs everywhere–Grilled Cheese To Go! I am not making this up.

I went to the mall with Helaine and Stef on a shopping expedition. I wish it wasn’t, but clothes buying is always a painful experience for me. I don’t know why? Stef and Helaine try their best to make me presentable. I grateful for that even if it isn’t obvious in real time.

While in the mall I spied this sign for a new store on its way to fill empty stomachs everywhere–Grilled Cheese To Go! I am not making this up.

Seriously, did someone do research and find grilled cheese sandwiches were a little too difficult for 21st Century Americans to make on their own?

I will be curious to see how this fares. Undoubtedly I’ll be wrong and it will be an immense hit.

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